Photo of the day: HIS Excalibur RADEON 9500 128MB... 128 bit!
It seems ATI did what it had promised: started to replace RADEON 9500 256-bit with cards like HIS Excalibur RADEON 9500 128MB 128-bit on Radeon 9500 PRO PCB. The special sticker illustrates this as well:
According to the serial number, HIS purchases these from Sapphire (as no one else announced 128Mb cards on Radeon 9500 in due time).
Provisional tests in our lab indicated LOWER performance at standard 275/270 (540) MHz clock speeds than that of RADEON 9500 64MB (on RADEON 9700 PCB with memory halved). So, to those who want to purchase a RADEON 9500 (not intending to remake it into RADEON 9500 PRO/9700) we advise to choose 64Mb model. Those who needs RADEON 9500 for remaking into RADEON 9700 should seek for older RADEON 9500 128Mb with 256-bit bus (these are easy to distinguish: read our Sapphire RADEON 9500 128MB review featuring photos of 256-bit card or just compare them to images here.)
So, the "newer" RADEON 9500 128MB can be successfully remade into RADEON 9500 PRO only (in case there’s no artefacts). However, the R300 production technology provides high yield, so there are still more overclockable GPUs that can be easily turned into RADEON 9500 PRO. So, you can purchase an almost real overclockable RADEON 9500 PRO for $150-160.
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